


Fight for This; And I Want

by ohjustdisarmalready



Series: And I 'verse [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Depersonalization, Found Family, Gen, Non-Sexual Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-03 17:18:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12752727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustdisarmalready/pseuds/ohjustdisarmalready
Summary: Taako may set his allegiance elsewhere, but Davenport recruited him to this mission and he'll be damned before he lets any of his crew members down.Alternately titled; Davenport steps up to plate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wolfskater63](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfskater63/gifts).



> Again with the pronouns: 'it' pronouns are used for someone who has a clear preference for 'he'. It's confronted in the text as a bad thing, but if that's gonna be a problem for you, please watch out for yourself. Let me know if you need a more specific warning.
> 
> This won't make sense if you haven't read And I Will, but you can get by without the rest.
> 
> This one's for Wolfskater63 because I'm pretty sure they've left at least one comment per chapter since I started And I Will, which has been incredibly validating

Lup did try really hard not to die, but mistakes did happen every once in a while. Lup would die, Taako would stick around for a while thanks to the new deal with Jeffandrew, they’d retrieve the light and Taako would drop dead. It was stressful and exhausting and—Davenport had never expected to have children, okay, but now he had five of them and one of them kept getting kidnapped. It was terrible. And it dragged on the rest of the crew fretting about him, how he was doing in the outer ‘verse, whether they were fucking him up too badly. Routinely having to coax one of your teammates out of deep trauma wasn’t fun, it wasn’t a good time.

At least they’d mostly given up on reprogramming him, but the ‘training’ he went through…well. He didn’t talk much about it, but Davenport had eyes. Something was going to give and if he didn’t move carefully it was going to be Taako.

So when they reconstituted at the end of a hard year, eight months after Lup had died and six after they’d retrieved the light, he put his foot down.

Barry seemed to have a similar feeling. “Hey, Taako,” he said as soon as the twins were done reuniting and Magnus had gotten a hug in from both of them.

“What, you want some of this too?” Taako said, draping himself over Barry in a quick embrace before shoving Lup at him. Davenport sat back to watch. Maybe he wouldn’t have to speak up just yet.

“Yeah, I missed you two.” Barry took a moment to close his eyes and cuddle into Lup, but refused to be derailed. “But I was just asking, didn’t we fix that thing where you die whenever Lup does?”

Lup withdrew as soon as he said it. “We didn’t?” She asked.

“We mostly did,” Taako said. Davenport exchanged a glance with Merle, who sighed and started dragging together chairs for a meeting.

“I mean, I can stay behind when Lup dies now until we get the light. And they’ll let me come back at the end of the year when everyone else does.” He plopped down in a chair before Merle was even done moving it, getting a quick ride before Merle complained about his old, aching muscles.

“That’s great,” Lucretia piped in. “How about if you just didn’t die, though. Like imagine if you stayed alive. Wild.”

Taako rolled his eyes in a gesture so dramatic it involved his entire body. “That’s fuckin’ crazy talk. What would even be the point? I could stick around and make sure you don’t eat fantasy instant ramen every day? At least going to training means I come back better than I was.”

Davenport thought about the family dinners they’d been having for the past six months and thought Taako staying for the food didn’t sound so bad. It was better than a raw head of cabbage sliced five ways while they all worried for their missing members. Lup was getting ready to get into it, it seemed like.

“Hey, Taako,” she said.

Taako looked at her. “What.”

“Shut up.” She walked right up to him. “Don’t you fucking defend those bastards.” She turned to address the ragged circle that had formed. “I think that’s a fantastic idea, the longer he can stay here the better.”

Taako looked too startled to respond for a moment, and Davenport jumped on the opportunity before he could derail it.

“So is there a way to do that? Keep you here after your ‘mission’ is technically done for the year?” He asked. The crew looked up as he spoke, and Lucretia sat in the chair circle and pulled out the meeting minutes notebook. Magnus and Merle sat with her, and Barry was quick to follow suit. Meeting established without saying a thing.

Davenport hid a smile beneath his mustache. His crew was the best.

“I could try to make a body for you to live in after you get ejected from you own,” Barry offered. “It’s, like, super illegal and morally wrong under most circumstances, but I think this is an exception.”

Lucretia glanced up from her notes. “We don’t always have warning before Lup dies, and if she dies after we retrieve the light we might not have time to catch him on his way out,” she pointed out.

Taako waved his arms in protest before settling on putting them in an ‘X’. “You can’t—we can’t just like—we can’t do that? I can’t just _not go_ when they call me. That’s not a thing! I can’t do that.”

Magnus frowned thoughtfully. “So we have to not let you know you’re being called?”

“Might be a way to block the signal somehow,” Barry muttered. “I’d need to try some stuff…”

“No, no, _absolutely_ not. That is a terrible idea on so many levels, I cannot even _express_ how badly that would end for all involved. Nope. Nuh-uh. Taako’s good out here.” Taako apparently decided crossed arms weren’t enough and crossed his legs too.

Davenport tried to see it from Taako’s…’employer’s’ perspective, the perspective Taako was most predisposed to after training. He came up with bureaucracy.

“Can you ask them for an extension of service? Technically the job’s not done. What if you’re the last survivor and we all die because you get pulled for training?” He proposed. Davenport’s ability to propose bullshit that got him what he wanted was how this mission had gotten off the ground in the first place, no reason not to go with his talents.

Taako seemed to actually consider it.

“Huh. That’s uh. Well that’s a good point. I guess that would be a real problem,” he said. “I guess I can…ask? Next time? If nothing else, I can wreck shit or die or something and that would probably get their attention.”

He manifested his weapon and Lup tackled him in a storm of sisterly rage. “Like _hell_ you’re going to fucking—”

And everything went white. And they were sitting on couches in front of a low coffee table in a high-end living room. And Lup was no longer tackling her brother, instead sitting comfortable with the rest of them as Taako stood on the other side of the room. There were two figures with him, one standing, one sitting.

He stared at the crew and back at his surroundings. He looked horrified.

“That won’t be necessary,” the seated man said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Negotiations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to rewrite this a couple times, because the tension just wasn't there. Taako kept acting chill as hell and I know that is not a thing. Come on, buddy.

“Holy shit,” Lup muttered, and sprang to her feet before Barry caught her arm and pulled her back to the couch. “Hey, lemme go, I need to punch him.”

Magnus was staring openly at the man. “Taako, is this your boss dad guy?”

Taako shifted, looking more uncomfortable than Davenport had ever seen him. The man nodded at him and he shuffled forward a little bit. He was still on the wrong side of the room.

“Yeah, this is him. Apparently he is. Always watching.” He spoke so quietly and the gap between them loomed so large that he was nearly impossible to understand. Lup squirmed out of Barry’s arms and strode towards her brother, catching his arm and pulling him firmly to their side of the room.

Davenport looked at the two figures on the other side. One—Jeffandrew, he had to assume—was sitting, relaxed, in a comfortable armchair. He was wearing generic but bright red clothing which Davenport could only describe as an exact intersection between each of their individual styles.

The end result was…unique. Very red. Davenport didn’t like it.

The figure standing behind him was harder to pin down. Humanoid, certainly, but what kind of humanoid was hard to tell. Their features were shifting and unclear, with the long lines of an elf in one moment and then when you looked again the distinctive eyes of a dwarf. They seemed sized to be a human, maybe, but then Davenport would look again and they were of a height with him. Their hair was brown, white, blond, orange, green and their face was even harder to pin down. He could swear he saw the old cashier at his local grocery store, something in the curve of their mouth that reminded him of one of his students, a hundred different faces but when he blinked they were each gone.

They did not make eye contact with him, nor did they make any move to speak. Their body angled towards Jeffandrew as they stood behind him, but they didn’t look directly at him either. It was hard to tell any more with the shift and blur of their features.

Not an illusion, though. Their physical reality was actually this shifting, amorphous humanoid.

Jeffandrew cleared his throat when none of them spoke up.

“I hear you have a complaint with my distribution of resources?” He asked primly, folding his hands over his knee.

“You keep fucking killing my brother,” said Lup. Taako was still standing, and she was holding his hand behind his back where Jeffandrew couldn’t see. He tensed at that and squeezed Lup’s hand and she subsided. “Sir.”

Jeffandrew nodded thoughtfully and told them, “While normally I wouldn’t interface directly with a world I’ve created, I think this is a pretty unique situation. I assume you all want to be here for this?”

He gestured at the crew, though his eyes skipped right over Taako.

“Well, he’s _one of us_ , so I’d say yeah,” Magnus growled. Jeffandrew didn’t seem bothered. Taako murmured an apology and an excuse, barely enunciating words so much as expressing a tone. Jeffandrew glanced at Davenport, looked at Magnus, and visibly decided not to take offense.

“Very well. Feel free to make yourselves comfortable. Would you like any refreshments? Anything you’d like, just say the word,” he offered.

Magnus narrowed his eyes and Davenport prayed to any god who could reach this place that he wouldn’t try to pick a fight. He looked at Taako and sat back, though. Taako carefully did not look relieved.

“Sure. Get me a hamburger,” the fighter said.

Jeffandrew only smiled genially. “Of course. Anything else? Lup, would you like anything?”

Lup scowled defiantly. “Tri-tip steak served medium rare with a perfect béarnaise sauce and some bomb-ass wine, _sir_.”

Jeffandrew nodded. “Certainly. And some waters all around, I think. You can return to your proper form now, by the way.”

He looked right at Taako for the first time in the conversation, and Davenport could see Taako squeeze Lup’s hand tight and drop it, stepping away from the massive couch they were seated on.

“I think I’ll keep this one for now,” Taako said, voice refusing to tremble, moving to the amorphous figure in the back. Davenport could almost feel how badly Lup wanted to go after him.

Jeffandrew hummed. “Unique situation indeed,” was all he said.

Taako and the other humanoid did something Davenport couldn’t quite see and Taako came back with a plate of perfectly medium rare steak with a yellow sauce on it. Lup snarled at Jeffandrew and Davenport put a hand on her knee.

She glanced over at him, startled, and he shot her a quelling look. Anger wouldn’t help them here. There would be time for that later.

Taako set the plate on the table with the posture and perfect smoothness of a professional waiter, but Lucretia stood up. She moved over to the other figure—Davenport could only assume they were the same type of construct as Taako, in a different form—and took the glasses of water they were holding.

The figure stopped. It stared at her for half a moment, startled, as she started busing dishes herself, before Magnus caught on and stood to join her. With four people working, there were quickly hors d’oeuvres in front of everyone and meals where they’d been requested. Jeffandrew had opted for a delicious-smelling tea and a plate of pastries Davenport had never seen before. Taako glanced nervously between his companions and Jeffandrew, but no one admonished him and he didn’t say anything.

With Merle, Barry, and Davenport keeping an eye on Lup, Magnus and Lucretia were able to guide Taako back to the couch with no trouble, though he hesitated to walk past his original station beside and slightly behind Jeffandrew. Just out of sight but immediately close if he should be needed. Instead, he took a similar position near Lup and resisted being moved. Since she was in the middle of the couch, he had to stand in front of it, at least.

“You’re technically in charge of this group, right? Mister…ah, Davenport?” Jeffandrew asked once they were all situated and not obviously moving anymore.

“Captain Davenport,” Davenport corrected. He’d never been a mister in his life, but he had a feeling that even if he had he wouldn’t be anymore. Jeffandrew was treating them well enough, but knowing what Taako had been through with him was enough to make him feel slimy just talking to the guy.

“Captain, then. I hear you would like to reallocate our gift to you. Is it not serving to your satisfaction?” Jeffandrew asked. Taako made no reaction that Davenport could see, but Lup hissed.

“Taako has been absolutely indispensable to our mission,” Davenport said evenly, and Taako was startled enough to give him a sidelong glance.

_Don’t argue with him_ , Taako said, casting message. _He can hurt you_.

_He won’t hurt any of us,_ Davenport replied. Taako’s eyes lingered on him for a moment before he went back to staring attentively at nothing.

Davenport ignored the warning. Jeffandrew had done enough. “There are a lot of things that would have gone very badly if not for Taako’s presence. We’re very grateful to have him with us. In fact, I would say we couldn’t do what we do without him.”

Jeffandrew raised an eyebrow. “Would you.”

“Absolutely,” Davenport said. “In fact, that’s why we wanted to talk to you. When Lup dies, as soon as we get the light, Taako returns here, right?”

“We aren’t in my home world currently, but that is what happens, yes,” Jeffandrew affirmed. He took a long sip from his tea. No one else had touched the food in front of them.

Davenport was sitting up as straight as he could in the plush couch, but Jeffandrew was clearly of a taller race (human?) and had the height advantage. Nothing he hadn’t dealt with before, though. He pressed forward.

“We’ve been in the situation before where Lup dies and we retrieve the light, but we run into trouble afterwards. Since neither of our arcanists are alive, these situations are much more dangerous than they need to be. We have survived them so far, but we would be better able to do our job if we could rely on having all possible crew members present.” Taako shot him a hint of a surprised glance—Davenport may have been embellishing the truth slightly—but schooled his expression quickly enough, shaking himself a little and stepping away from Lup.

Jeffandrew watched this closely. He didn’t look particularly approving.

Lup didn’t look thrilled, either. Taako’s knees were trembling.

“Certainly we don’t mean to inconvenience you by sending your attendant in for retraining. We want what you want; and end to the blight on your world as quickly and painlessly as possible. But with a situation as unique as this one, we want to ensure the best possible quality of protection for your crew—a priority I’m sure you can agree with, Captain Davenport.” Jeffandrew gestured to Taako, who didn’t react. “This unit is already broken beyond our ability to repair it. We haven’t replaced it because it hasn’t failed completely yet, and because Lup seems to have grown attached to this model, but extra training is vital to ensure that it doesn’t devolve further. Especially if you continue to sabotage our maintenance. I’m sure you understand.”

Taako was staring blankly towards but not directly at Jeffandrew, the other Taako-like creature was analyzing Taako, and Lup surged forwards against Davenport’s warning hand and Barry’s arms.

“That’s not maintenance that’s _torture_ you son of—” Taako stepped quickly between her and Jeffandrew and Barry wrestled her back, speaking quietly but urgently in her ear. Jeffandrew looked on.

“Certainly you know I wouldn’t kill your charge after all the trouble I’ve put into her. Stand down,” he told Taako, who quickly stepped away from Lup as if he’d been shocked.

Then he stepped back. He stood between Lup and Jeffandrew, between all of them and Jeffandrew, shaking like a leaf but not leaving. He didn’t look at anyone and he didn’t say anything. Lup looked ready to burst, shaking just as hard as her brother.

Jeffandrew looked less indulgent.

“You can see what I’m talking about,” he said. “It’s meant to have some autonomy, of course, but this is clearly broken. It treats its owner like a theat. It’s only a matter of time before its malfunctions make it dangerous to you without retraining. It needs to be monitored before it becomes a hazard.”

Magnus was the first to break. He stood and grabbed Taako by the shoulders, startling him badly, but he was used to Magnus enough (or terrified enough, or hopeless enough) that he didn’t get his weapon out. Magnus bundled him into his side and sat him down with the rest of them and Taako didn’t fight him. Didn’t cooperate, but didn’t fight.

“Taako’s not—broken! Or dangerous! I mean, if he wanted to be, sure, but—there’s nothing wrong with him and you can’t just keep taking him! If he doesn’t want to be here he should be home!” He sounded choked up. Magnus had always been an angry crier. Normally it was tears followed by a quick axe to the face, so it didn’t really matter if he looked vulnerable for a moment. Davenport hoped it wouldn’t come to that here.

Taako was hyperventilating very, very quietly.

Jeffandrew raised an eyebrow, but Magnus refused to be mollified. He glared stubbornly until Taako gathered himself enough to stop him. He must have cast message again, because Magnus looked startled but did quell his hostility.

“You know it isn’t a person, right?” Jeffandrew asked. Fuck. Lup was gonna kill this fool. Davenport couldn’t think of a good reason not to, in the moment. Fuck Jeffandrew. “I understand that you’re not magically inclined, but—if you built an automaton to accomplish a task, and it consistently failed to accomplish that task, behaved belligerently, and made clear deviations from how you’d built it, you’d take it back to the drawing board and fix it. That’s all we’re doing, is fixing it so it can do better at its job. We go to great lengths to make this one usable despite the situation with its stolen soul, but perhaps we shouldn’t have, if it’s giving you misinformation about what it is. It’s a tool, not a companion.”

Chaos erupted. Magnus and Lup were on their feet immediately, Merle barely keeping them in place as they each began shouting, and Barry had his hands in tight fists on his lap and wasn’t interfering. The figure serving Jeffandrew drew its weapon and stood between him and them, and Lucretia drew her wand and pointed at it, saying something Davenport couldn’t hear over the commotion.

Taako looked terrified, standing off to the side and wringing his hands as he moved to restrain them, stopped, looked at Jeffandrew, looked at Lup, backed out, moved back in. He did commit to settling the situation after a moment; and switched to expressionlessly restraining his sister, which only seemed to make her more enraged as she fought his grasp.

Davenport whistled, loud and sharp, and his crew all stopped and looked at him.

“Lup, Magnus, Taako, sit down. Lucretia, wand away, this is a peaceful meeting. You, Jeffandrew.” He said, giving them each a sharp look in turn.

Jeffandrew looked surprised. Arrogant bastard. He waved a hand and Taako’s…compatriot(?) stood down, returning to their position behind his chair.

“Let me tell you something,” Davenport said. “This is my crew. I hand-picked them each individually for what they had to offer, because I know we can accomplish great things together. I may not have known the particulars of the situation at the time, but Taako’s eccentricities were considered along with everyone else’s. Do you understand? Yes or no.”

Jeffandrew started, “Certainly I respect—” but Davenport didn’t let him finish.

“Yes or no.” He insisted.

Jeffandrew looked a little lost. Had no one said no to this man before?

“Yes, I suppose. You chose your crew,” he said. He took another sip of tea, looking awkward.

Good enough. Davenport nodded.

“And I chose them well. This team is the best of the best, with existing dynamics that power our engine and the teamwork and ingenuity to get us out of every situation we’ve encountered so far. Your training interrupts existing patterns and leaves my crew vulnerable whenever Lup isn’t there. Our mission as a whole is sabotaged when we can’t count on Taako’s continuing presence. We cannot afford to be hesitating to retrieve the light because we don’t want one of our team members to disappear for the rest of the year, and the extra time we take to reestablish our working relationships after he comes back is wasted consistently. He can train with us, just like everyone else does. We cannot afford to have a teammate disappearing,” he said. Jeffandrew furrowed his brow, but he was listening.

Taako was staring at Davenport like he’d overturned a mountain. Like he’d done something so far beyond impossible that Taako had never dared to dream of it.

“So you’re saying…you want a replacement for when this one is training? To cover for its absence?” He asked. Taako crumpled, but then remembered himself and smoothed his expression. Was he being deliberately obtuse? But no, no; it seemed like he was genuinely baffled.

“Absolutely not. My crew works well with Taako already, and adding a stranger at this point would be actively harmful. What I want is for Taako to remain in our world regardless of Lup’s condition,” Davenport said. He wasn’t sure but he thought he caught a hint of relief in the being behind Jeffandrew at that. Yeah, he wouldn’t want to be assigned this job either if he didn’t know better.

Jeffandrew sighed and rubbed his forehead. Davenport smiled at him. Check.

“You understand that what you’re asking is very unorthodox, don’t you? You’re asking for Lup’s construct to serve independently of her. Its job does not extend to the five of you,” he said. He did not say no. Taako was still staring at nothing. Lup looked at Davenport like he’d just offered her the world on a platter and she was waiting for him to take it back.

And, hey, there were a lot of reasons Davenport didn’t like Jeffandrew. A whole lot of them. But he was adding one more. He hated Jeffandrew for making her look like that. His arcanists were half-wild, gleeful, angry elflings, but afraid? Not on his damn watch.

“I’m aware,” he said simply. “He’s with Lup because she’s going to defeat the Hunger, isn’t he? Or, more specifically, we as a crew have the potential to defeat it, and you decided Lup would be best suited to a companion.”

Jeffandrew nodded, apparently back on solid ground.

“Among other things,” he said cryptically. Well, they could figure that out later. No doubt Lucretia was—yep, she was writing notes on the conversation. Good. They’d need all the information they could get later.

“Well, to do that, we need this crew to be alive and in good health at the end of the day. We absolutely won’t accept a replacement, and we need Taako to survive in our world with this crew to keep us all in good condition to stop this thing.” Davenport had thought he was done demanding crew members from their various department heads when they’d blasted off, but apparently he’d kept the skills. He could see the fight leave Jeffandrew.

“Is that what you’ve decided?” Jeffandrew asked, looking calculatingly at Davenport.

Shit. Fuck. That was Taako-speak. Fuck. He glanced at Taako, but all he was doing was staring at Davenport intently. Shit.

There are moments in your life when you know you’re about to change something. The path diverges in front of you and you can’t go back. Davenport had had these moments before and he would have them again. The roster choices for this mission, leaving their home world behind to be destroyed by the Hunger, leaving his family to join the IPRE. They weren’t easy decisions to make, but they were worth it.

But damn, it never stopped feeling like he was flying by the seat of his pants.

Lup was still looking at him like he had the world in the palm of his hands, but her regular defensiveness had come back online somewhat with those words. She shot a poisonous glare at Jeffandrew and squinted suspiciously at the room at large. Davenport was pretty sure she was one wrong word from grabbing Taako and fireballing the room to high heaven.

Well. He was in charge of this crew. He had pledged to look out for them, to protect them if they needed protecting, to guide them to be their best selves through this mission and beyond. There was really only one answer he could give.

“Yes. Taako needs to stay with us,” he said.

Jeffandrew turned to Lup. “And you agree with this?”

Lup nodded. “I sure do.”

Jeffandrew sat back. “Here’s what I can propose to you, then,” he said.

He turned to address Lup. “You retain this specific construct and it continues to serve you. Whatever modifications you make to it will be retained. We won’t interfere and your life will continue as normal.”

Lup nodded and Davenport noticed that she was clutching her brother’s hand. Taako had gone back to looking blankly at the ground. Jeffandrew turned to Davenport.

“And Captain Davenport, should Lup die, its mission will shift to the protection of the remaining crew until she returns. That means, regardless of how many of you die, we will not recall it short of an emergency and it will still be considered on-mission.” Davenport nodded. Taako would live forever, that sounded good to him. “However, should it be damaged enough to return here, we will train it for the rest of the year until it is brought back at the end of the cycle, at which point it will resume its duties to Lup personally. Is that acceptable?”

There was always a catch. But if they could keep Taako from dying, that sounded pretty ideal. Davenport turned to the twins.

“Taako? Lup? What do you think?” He glanced at the rest of the crew, too, but they were each looking at the twins.

Lup reached over Barry to nudge Taako. “You good with that?”

Taako looked blankly at her. “Is it what you’ve decided is best?”

Fuck. Yeah, he probably wasn’t going to say anything with Jeffandrew right there, even if he could. Lup took charge before he could say anything about it, though. She gave Jeffandrew a sharp look.

“Can I have a second to talk to my brother?” She asked, and Davenport decided not to badger her about her tone. She’d earned it.

Jeffandrew frowned. “You know it isn’t—” he started, but Lup snarled and he stopped and changed his mind.

He stood. “Of course. Just tell either of the constructs when you’re ready to see me again.”

He walked, unhurried, out of the room. Taako’s counterpart didn’t move to follow him, instead staring intently at Taako, who stared right back.

Davenport looked at his crew sat on the couch with a glamorous spread in front of them, still untouched.

“I hate that guy,” Magnus said. Yeah, that wasn’t a sentiment Davenport could really argue with.

“We are still being watched,” Taako said dully, not breaking eye contact but tilting an ear to show that he was paying attention.

Magnus stood and began to pace, gesturing wildly. “So? I hate him! With his constructs, and training, and—ugh! Do they always treat you like that?”

The other construct spoke up. “It is how we’re meant to be treated. This one has forgotten its place, but no one else has forgotten what it is.”

Taako sneered. “Yeah, fuck off.” He finally broke the stare-off, deliberately turning his back to his counterpart to address Magnus.

“They don’t think of us as real people, though. That’s pretty much the best you can expect. Jeffandrew’s actually one of the better ones.” He shrugged, and the other lunged forward.

“I cannot allow this _disrespect_ —” Taako manifested his weapon and pointed it at them in sync with the rest of the crew.

“Hey. Not talking to you. You wanna play the good boy, fine, but I ain’t doin’ it anymore.” He growled. Then he shrugged. “Well. Sometimes. Sometimes I guess I still do.”

Lup came to stand at her brother’s side and put an arm over his shoulder. “We know who you are,” she said.

“Hell yeah you do,” Taako responded. “So. Staying. Splitting responsibility. How do you feel.”

With Jeffandrew gone, Taako served himself some food, and his counterpart made a strangled sound behind him. He set another plate out for them with a sneer.

“I like you staying,” Magnus offered. “This sounds, like, pretty much perfect? You’d be just like the rest of us, right?”

Taako shrugged, and Lucretia said, “I’m a little concerned about the split responsibility. Would the rest of us be able to inflict our will on you whenever Lup dies? You can already be incredibly reckless where Lup’s safety is concerned, I would hate to see that times five.”

Lup frowned. “Yeah, actually. Would you be okay with…?” She gestured at all of them.

Taako did not deign to make eye contact. “Not an issue,” he said.

Davenport felt the stirrings of pride in his chest. It was a singular feeling, being trusted by someone who had never trusted before. And he knew his crew would never force Taako into something he didn’t want to do, but that Taako was giving them this power over him in times when Lup wouldn’t be able to look out for him…

Still, best not to make a big deal out of it. He’d get skittish.

“Thank you, Taako. You have the most experience with these people, is there anything about this deal that we should be aware of as we consider it?” He said. Hopefully they could get this done and he could get his crew out of here before long.

Taako sat against the coffee table, taking a bite of steak as he did. “I mean, it’s a fantastic fuckin’ offer. Too good to be true, almost. I don’t think anyone else would get this offer, but since I’ve got real people involved…yeah, I think we can take it at face value. I’m good with saying yes.”

The other servant, no, there had to be a better word for that…the other person in Taako’s position made a noise of outrage, but didn’t move to interfere. Magnus looked worried, but followed Taako’s lead and ignored them for the most part. Lup helped herself to some of Taako’s hors d'oeuvres.

“Does anyone else have anything to say? Objections?” Davenport asked. Barry took a moment to think but shook his head, and Lucretia said she didn’t, while Magnus and Merle each shrugged. Seemed like the decision had been made, then.

“Alright, three minutes for free talk and we’ll accept it. Starting now.” Davenport had started giving free talk when tensions were high a few years ago, a short period of time when no one would hold what you had to say against you. Three minutes of prescribed venting was fantastic for team cohesion, it turned out.

“Opt out,” Taako said, and Lup jostled his shoulder.

“We’ll get you later. I hate this guy. I wanna punch him in the dick. If he doesn’t have a dick I wanna punch him in the face. I’m gonna set him on fire some day and laugh. Fuck Jeffandrew.” She started. Magnus and, surprisingly, Lucretia, nodded.

“He’s a massive dick and I hate him,” Magnus agreed.

“Yeah, no, he’s pretty evil, we’re agreed,” Barry said.

“Look, can we postpone this?” Taako asked. “Homeboy over there’s gettin’ nervous.”

Indeed, the other construct was shifting more violently, moving towards and away from them, reaching out and then retreating. That didn’t look good.

“Right. We’ll continue this later. Would you mind summoning Jeffandrew back, one of you?” Davenport asked. Probably best not to bitch the guy out in his own demiplane anyway. Taako nodded and the other figure disappeared for a moment, reappearing with Jeffandrew at their side.

“You’re prepared to accept my offer?” He asked. So he had been eavesdropping.

“Yes,” Davenport said. “We accept. Thank you for meeting with us.”

“Of course. Let’s not see each other too soon, shall we?”

And with no more warning they were back on the ‘Blaster. Home, sweet home. Taako sat down on the floor and buried his head in his hands.

“I can’t _believe_ you did that,” he gasped. “Holy fuck, holy shit, he could have killed you. Why didn’t you listen to me? He would have _killed_ you!”

“No he fucking wouldn’t,” Lup said, but Taako was well on his way to a panic attack and wasn’t about to slow down.

“He doesn’t care about this world. It’s pretty but pretty things can be broken, he could have killed you. You’re supposed to take care of this crew, how could you be so reckless?” He snapped his head up to glare at Davenport. “I trusted you not to fight him! And you fucking _told him_ he was _wrong_! You can’t _do_ that!”

Fuck. Well, it was true that Davenport was usually willing to cut his losses to keep his crew safe, but.

“You didn’t expect me to set you up to be tortured for months at a time, did you?” He challenged. Taako was going to have to realize sooner or later that he was a part of this crew, and that meant Davenport’s protection extended to him.

Taako leapt to his feet, seized by a sudden burst of energy.

“It’s not! Stop calling it that! I’m doing what I have to!” He shouted. Lup made to touch his arm but he shook her off. “You don’t understand! I have to be—I’m not _safe_ , I’m—just stop _looking_ at me like that! I'm not _one of you!_ ”

And with a quick planar shift, Taako disappeared.

Fuck. Davenport looked at Lup, who scowled.

“He won’t listen to me. Says I’m biased,” she admitted bitterly. “Believe me, I’ve tried.”

They were gonna have to talk about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dav rolled a nat 20 on insight so he can read minds now

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to post this all in one sitting, but then I thought, what if I didn't do that? What if I posted a tiny snippet and then went to play dnd with my friends. So that's what I did.


End file.
